i'm a cheapskate, and the only thing i splurge on is buying Kingsford charcoal (except for my "big toys", of course ). So i have a process i use when smoking meat for extended periods.
I always wrap anything i'm smoking in foil the last few hours--so my theory is: why waste good charcoal? If the meat is wrapped in foil then obviously the wood chunks/chips are not doing any good, much less the charcoal. So as soon as I wrap the meat in charcoal I transfer it to a prewarmed oven at 200-250 (whatever temp i've been smoking it at) and finish it off for the last few hours.
I'm sure if i ever broke down the math on this i wouldn't be saving much (if any) money, but does anyone else do this?

I've had to do this out of necessity. On occasion my smoker will only warm to 170-190 degrees and won't heat up enough to fully cook the meat (due to wind or cold weather). If this happens I will place the meat into the oven to bring it temperature. I, however, prefer to finish it in the smoker when possible.

Thrroff admits to sacrilege at times. I figure that you are going to get all the smoke penetratioin you are going to get after about 5 hours with a brisket or port butt. Wrapping the meat and throwing it in the oven saves one from tending the fire.

Let me back up, and examine the problem. Why are you wrapping things in foil? The only reason I know of for wrapping in foil is if things are getting too brown too quick. That should be a temporary one time fix. In that case the solution isn't the foil but in adjusting the fire for the future. If you are so worried about burning charcoal and woodchips use less. It seems to me that by fiddling the other variables there is no need for foil and no need for for the oven. The grill is where the fun is at!

hi Grand Scale,
i wrap meat in foil the last few hours to keep the meat from drying out, and to make it more moist and tender.
I definitely agree that it's more fun to do it in the smoker, but i get tired of going through 40-50 lbs of charcoal a week.

I know this isn't the way I would do it, but we were invited to a dinner that included ribs from the grill. The person who gave the dinner Pre-cooked the ribs in the oven to tenderize them, then put them on the grill afterwards. Since I was invited, I was not about to criticize, and quite honestly, they were delicious. Everyone has their methods.